So the much-hyped iPhone 3G is finally here, flaunting its new HSDPA connection and AGPS. But all is not rosy in the Apple's garden of touchy-feely delights, since many of the old version's problems still remain.
At first glance the new model looks just like the old one. From the front, there's no obvious difference between …

COMMENTS

MMS - come on, who actualy uses that aged 13 or over?

I got the iphone 3g on launch day from apple southampton. It's actually better than i expected. Finally proper address book syncing with my MBP, and battery does about 2 days, which isn't too bad.

I guess including MMS wouldn;t hurt but really who actually uses this? Its free and much better to send email anyway. I've had MMS phones for years and only send about 3 MMSs. I'm more likely to send photos with the iphone's email than i was with MMS.

Apple doesn't need to keep up with the competition

Worldwide sales figures for the first iPhone proved that Apple don't need to keep up with the competition.

Apple could re-release this same phone with a single additional hardware tweak every couple of months and it would still sell by the boatload, even to people who already owned the previous generation devices.

The Apple fanbase is a breed apart from regular consumers - they don't care about DRM, missing industry standard features like front-facing cameras on 3G phones, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, memory card support, copy and paste, etc. It's slick, shiny and it has the Apple logo on it - where do I sign up for my 18-month contract?

(I've used the iPhone and whilst the browser is awesome I have a strong distaste for Apples featureset-arrogance in the marketplace)

LOL WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT!

Awkward keyboard?

You must have fat fingers. I can type almost as fast as I can on a normal keyboard - trust in the autocorrect! Even if you hit the wrong key, 99% of the time the iphone guesses what key you mean to press!

This review is fair and spot on

This is in fact a very impartial and honest review. No need for a flame war, whether you're for or against the iPhone. The review tackles each issue as it would for any other phone. I don't plan to get one until they sort out the on screen keyboard. Once it is possible to fire off an email or text message at the same speed (or quicker) than something like the excellent Nokia E71, then we'll be talking. iPhone 3?

Twat-O-Tron alive and well at the Register

Missing the point

I'm a first time iPhone'r and the reason I have finally succumbed is the exchange email integration. This doesn't just work it is FAR more usable than either Windows Mobily or SE handsets that I have previously owned. This makes the iphone a killer business phone with a great tarrif that frees you from worrying about the amount of data you are downloading. MMS? Video phone? Tell me one business user who cases less about those functions.

Not using MMS shows a lack of imagination

A picture speaks a thousand words, etc. Especially if I'm on holiday. Or scouting for new rivers to kayak. Or spot a new bit of geekware; or my nephew's being cute; or try to choose (ie: get the wife's opinion on) plants for the garden; or getting Dad to identify said plant? Have you ever tried describing a surf break; or a new ski run; or one of a million other examples?

@Darren Coleman

Did you read the review? The phone has a "gorgeous screen", "viewing video, browsing the web and even just hopping around the menus is as much a joy as it was with the original" (where it is implied the reviewer thought it was quite good), and "Safari remains the best mobile browser bar none".

There are lots of non-stellar parts of the phone, as discussed in other parts of the review, but you're clearly wrong if you meant to imply that Apple haven't released a competitive phone. It's one thing to say it isn't the best in class, but quite another to say that the only reason any have been sold is the pre-existing Apple fanbase.

I thought it was a good review, and I think the iPhone deserves about the level of success it has had. Especially as we all get to benefit from improvements in web browsing and data plans that other phones and operators are suddenly having to provide.

Opera competing with Safari

RE:MMS - come on, who actualy uses that aged 13 or over?

Who uses MMS aged 13 or over? Well I for one do. I work on a site that measures some 200,000m² and MMS is invaluable for communicating with colleagues and contractors etc. many of whom only have a fairly standard mobile phone.

Is a shame really, iPhone with 3G (not so fussed about GPS) would be close to ideal for me but the lack of MMS (coupled with no video and fairly low spec camera) make it a no go.

@Thomas

Yes, I read the review. I've played on the v1 iPhone quite a lot - and I know the v2 is more of the same with some bells and whistles (3G, GPS, App Store, etc). The v2 is what the v1 should've been, but it's still missing a whole host of features that ARE industry standard.

It's no great surprise that people who have iPhones and business users "don't need MMS" - but that's a contrived argument. MMS *is* widely used, and arguing that sending images over email is just as viable - which isn't a guaranteed much less instant service - is laughable. MMS works *because* it is an industry standard, you don't have to worry about whether your recipient reads email on their phone (even assuming they know how to do this or whether it's even possible), nor do you have to worry *when* they read this message. MMS, like SMS, is presented to the recipient instantly. Frankly if you're going to argue that sending images over email is a valid alternative to MMS then you might as well do away with SMS too and use emails instead?

Apple have released an interesting phone, but I still maintain that their arrogance to the established standards, particularly in the EU markets, is frustrating. It would be trivial to add MMS (if swirlyMMS can achieve it why can't Apple?), copy-and-paste, Flash support, etc - yet Apple have made a conscious decision not to.

(FWIW I own a Macbook Pro which I use often, so I'm definitely not anti-Apple. I'm a realist and I expect phones that are billed as revolutionary to be just that, not several steps backwards technologically)

RE: RE: MMS - come on, who actualy uses that aged 13 or over?

Ok one or two points taken but basically if a picture is going to to be good enough to convey any great information by the time its been shrunk by MMS and viewed on a regular phone its useless, come on in email, you versatile bugger you!

If Apple invented MMS everyone would be like come on, what a rip off, typical Apple, i can do that with linux and email and some sort of shell script for free!

Has it been renamed?

Simple Facts

I've used Symbian devices and Windows mobile extensively. iPhone does the subset of features I actually want far better than any other device. Would you offer any other phone to someone and expect them to be able to google something without them every having used it before? No crap interface or pecking with a stick! It just works.

re: missing industry standard features

i'm sorry, but these so-called "industry standard features" that everyone keeps on banging on about - the front-facing camera, mms, memory-cards - are they actually useful

i don't know _anyone_ who does video phonecalls or video conferencing on their mobile. if you need that for business, you'll do it in a meeting room.

mms were a fad and their time has past. send an email with a full size picture for free instead of an expensive tiny fuzzy text messsage picture - if you lot want to keep living in the dark ages of sms technology that's your problem

and memory-cards - these, like dvd/cd drive and floppy disks before them, are things of the past. in the same way that the MacBook Air has dispensed with teh need for a cd/dvd drive, so too has the iphone dispensed with memory cards! stop living in the past!!

but it cant forward a txt

re: Wish list - cut & paste

how would you implement the "cut and paste" on a system with no keys and only finger input?

first, you need to find a way of allowing the user to select a chunk of text. presumably, you'd put two fingers on the screen at the start of the first word, and drag the second finger to the end of the last word. that would highlight them.

(this opens up it's own bag of worms though - if you allow the users to highlight text, then they'll want to highlight text both within text input boxes but also from other areas on the screen - such as from text messages that have been recieved, emails that you're reading before you click teh reply button, text on websites, etc etc.) you need to find a way to make sure that a scroll action isn't mistaken for a highlight text action.

then what? do you assume the user wants that text cut? what if they just want to copy? do you pop up a menu offering a choice of cut/copy/delete?

and once the text is on a clipboard, how do you paste it? a double tap on the text cursor? holding your finger in the same place for 5 seconds?

Yes, Mac OS 1.0 could copy and paste - but it had a mouse, a drop down Edit menu and it had a keyboard with the Apple-key on it. these are all missing from the iPhone and so it's not as easy to implement

@re: missing industry standard features

So what your basically saying is that if apple don't have a feature, then people don't need to use it any more? Sorry, but I DO use all the features that are missing from the iphone, video calling may be a bit of a novelty, but I like it, as do my friends. It's great if we're out on different nights out to see the carnage we're all inflicting. Same for MMS. Not all of my friends are technologically minded enough to read emails on their phone, and to be honest they probably wouldn't bother even if they could. So a funny picture sent by email would just sit there until they could be bothered to read it, where as an MMS would grab their attention straight away. As for the lack of a memory card slot, I'm sorry, but that is essential nowadays. The more functions your phone claims to have, the more storage space it requires, especially as the iphone claims to do away for the need for a seperate mp3 player. Yes you could just load it up with the songs you want to listen to, but then why not have some crap 500 meg mp3 player. If you shell out for the iphone you should expect to be able to fit your entire collection on there and 16gb doesn't cut it.

BTW, CD's/DVD's aren't a thing of the past, not yet anyway, just because a macbook air doesn't have them because if it did it couldn't make its purely-marketing-driven claim to be the thinest laptop ever, doesn't mean they aren't used the world over. Sounds to me like you've brought an air because you're a fanboy and are now trying to justify it's lack of features.

I think of the iphone as a "concept phone". In the same way the motor industry creates concept cars to show us what cars will be like in 20 years time, so the iphone has shown us what will be commonplace with phones in 5 years. Thing is though, no one buys concept cars, and I can see no compelling reason to buy an iphone.

Stop for Stop the Bloody Hype around what is a middle table smartphone!

"Apple doesn't need to keep up with the competition"

Phone=Good, Apple 'Experience'=Shit

I got an iPhone 3G and I love most of its features - I only got one because I wanted a smartphone and went for the iPhone on a whim.

The keyboards great - I have dinky hands with wide fingers and manage a high rate of success in hitting the right keys.

My only complaints is firstly the retarded iTunes activation system, which is pathetic. I stick my SIM in, I should be able to use my phone, that simple, and which has put me off getting any future versions of the iPhone - I'll wait til Nokia rustle up an iPhone killer for my next phone.

The second complaint is the crap camera. Probably the worst camera-phone I've had in years, it's actually worse than the Cocoon's.

Other than that, once O2 stopped mucking me around, its been a good experience.

My god *slaps face*

If you're sending e-mails with pictures in, it most definitely won’t be for free, you'll still have data charges (although you'll probably wait until you’re seated in starbucks for the free wifi)

As for MMS, I use it regularly, for instance I found a copy of 'Bus driver simulator' in game the other day, how better to describe this than a picture of the box and a witty tag line to send to mate.

Memory cards are a god-send as they allow significantly more flexibility in data management.

If you owned V1, you’re a mug, but hey, you can't make your mind up over the laws of attraction, if you waited til v2, you're still a mug, just one who thinks he's beaten the game, if you got them both, you've lost the right to make comments with the rest of intelligible society.

Please stop bleating on about jebus phone, it doesn’t have a leg to stand on other than a pretty screen and a smooth browser.

A few points

The LCD is different, not just the colour balance which is set in software for a 'warmer' (yellow) cast but the viewing angles are reduced over the original, entirely subjective whether this is a good or bad thing.

The Audio hardware is different, using the same chipsets as the iPod Classic for much improved audio (assuming you're using a decent set of headphones that now connect to this model).

Battery life is reduced while in 3G mode, switch that off though and despite a smaller battery, stamina is better than the original phone. Having said that, 5 1/2 hours of 3G talk time is at the top end of similar 3G phones.

MMS really does need to die, It may be an Industry standard but its a stupidly expensive way of sending poxy small pics between phones, I'm glad they left it out. Like it or Loathe it, Apple have created a customer expectation that the Mobile internet should a) not incur extra charges, and b) be as useful as the Internet on their PC's, As this expectation percolates through the mobile industry MMS will either have to become a free extra with your contract or will die the slow painful death it deserves.

Overall a surprisingly balanced review for an Apple product at 'Teh Reg', shame though that for a tech journal you're missing the details a quick scan of the Ars review would have revealed.

@jai

Memory cards are a thing of the past? Somebody better tell Sandisk!

Seriously, that's a ridiculous and baseless thing to say, built in memory (like the Iphone) is fine, but exchangeable memory is useful too, it opens up the possibility of limitless storage, and can extend the useful life of a device too. I bought a 4GB card for my Tytn II back in October, I could upgrade it to 8GB now for £30 - try doubling the memory in your Iphone next year.

As for MMS, as everyone else here with a life has pointed out, if you know people who aren't set up with constant email access on their phone (wife/kids/friends/normal people) then of course it's something you need, or at least want. Picture messaging is a standard mobile feature, just like SMS and that talking thing people sometimes do, and not having it would be a constant irritation to many people.

Video calling - meh, fair do's, nobody uses it, it was a terrible idea in the 60's and it still is now.

No regrets

Who needs email when you have email? Email exists outside of my iPhone, where MMS is resolutely stuck in "phone world". It's not a feature I'll miss. Same goes for video calls; while like most folks I was caught up in the early 3G video call thing (and I really did love my SonyEricsson k800i), I only used the feature a few times!

Since I got my iPhone (1st gen) I've used it's web features every single day. Now I've upgraded with an iPhone 3G 16gb and I have no regrets.

@Darren Coleman

"Yes, I read the review. I've played on the v1 iPhone quite a lot - and I know the v2 is more of the same with some bells and whistles (3G, GPS, App Store, etc). The v2 is what the v1 should've been, but it's still missing a whole host of features that ARE industry standard."

I'm not arguing otherwise. What I'm saying is that if one handset does somethings quite a bit better than another handset, but other things not at all, then it's not fair to say that it is failing to keep up with the competition just because of the features it lacks. That doesn't tell the complete story. I would have thought that the more reasonable conclusion was that it is competitive, depending on which features you look for.

When asked about cut'n'paste, Apple said "[we] were not specifically against the feature, [we] have a prioritized list of features and were only able to get down the list so far with this product release". So although the company may project an extremely arrogant image, and suffer from undue arrogance in a hundred other departments, in this respect they've shown some humility. They can see value in the feature, it's just that they saw greater value in other features and could only do so much with the resources they have.

Of course that doesn't help when the features aren't there, but that's why it's an 80% phone, not a 95% phone.

@jai Re: re: Wish list - cut & paste

"how would you implement the "cut and paste" on a system with no keys and only finger input?

"first, you need to find a way of allowing the user to select a chunk of text. presumably, you'd put two fingers on the screen at the start of the first word, and drag the second finger to the end of the last word. that would highlight them."

You do it the way my old Newton 2100 did it, IIRC: Put your finger (stylus) at the start point, drag across and down to the end, then hit a handy "copy" icon. Go to where you want the copied item, tap the insert point and tap "paste".

Contextual menus mean you don't need to "<command>-keystroke" common functions

Personally, if Apple would simply make a device that had the functionality of my old Newton -- run multiple programs at once, "freeze" inactive programs to free-up memory, handwriting recognition (I had the late-model OS and am one of those that generally had quite good results with the HWR -- possibly because my normal style is a sort of "connected printing"), memory cards for storing data, etc. -- with the nice screen and wi-fi, I would be all over it. I'd even prefer something with a slightly larger physical screen than the current model (DAMN these fifty-mumble-year-old eyes! Zoom/squeeze/pan are fine, but they DO add extra steps.). Since I generally wear a jacket or such with large pockets I am not wedded to the idea that my gadget(s) MUST fit into a shirt-pocket.

But, then, I'm old-fashioned that way; I don't like concentrating everything down to one all-encompassing point of failure. I have a 'phone that I make calls on and a music player to... well... play music on. And if someone steals my player, I can still call the police. (And if someone steals my 'phone... well... at least I have music to relax me while I go down to the police station!<gr>) I would be more than happy to add a third item if it was a palmtop with the functionality and ease of use of OS X.

Re: Third Party MMS Apps exist for iPhone

Official apps? Ones that you don't have to jailbreak the iPhone to use? I don't think you can count aftermarket apps as part of the base featureset to be honest, otherwise I'll just point out that I can play Monkey Island using SCUMMVM on my N95....

Is there an MMS app on the Apple AppStore? Exactly.

MMS has been a base feature of mobile phones for years. Personally I can take it or leave it, though I have a number of picture messages that I've received from friends and... acquaintances - but I'm certainly not arrogant enough to state that "MMS is dead". It is widely used - statistics prove this.

What I find most confusing is the mindset of people who have upgraded from the v1 iPhone to the current one - if they could justify not having 3G and/or GPS for so long anyway why do they suddenly need it? It's not as if the current 2.0 firmware wasn't released for older devices..... it wouldn't be because they bought it as a fashion trinket and are exactly the sort of people who buy everything Apple churn out without hesitation?

Loathe?

Why would anyone 'loathe' the iPhone? I certainly don't loathe any Nokia or Blackberry phone, they are just products on a shelf after all. The iPhone is great for all mobile phone and PDA users and will lead to more competition on the market and increased choice for all. The mobile phone market is healthier for it...

@jai Re: re: Wish list - cut & paste

"how would you implement the "cut and paste" on a system with no keys and only finger input?"

The beauty of Apple's approach (and the breakthrough idea arguably) is the use of more than one finger (eg pinch zoom).

There's already the magnifying glass tool to allow cursor placement - a chorded tap (ie tapping with a second finger while holding down the finger keeping the magnifying glass active), would not be beyond the skill of most users to learn - particularly if there are keen enough to want to cut and paste in the first place. A less elegant, but more obvious and less RTFM way would be to have an interface element (button, pop-up menu etc) that appears along with the text entry tools.

Not an insurmountable problem considering the gargauntuan pile of cash Steve & Co are sitting on.

Feature packed, but featureless

The iPhone has number 3. (but not number 4. - I have received calls from iPhone and the sound quality from their end is poor, and I get better reception on my phone in some areas due to being able to choose from different service providers), but my Pay-as-You-Go phone I got for £70 does all four really well. Yeah, there is a lot you can do on an iPhone that I can't do on mine... only I don't want to do them.

Also, now that I've seen the iPhone close up I have to say that it looks so cheap! It's a style black hole - just a sheet of glass with a nasty black plastic back. By focusing on the touch screen, they've removed any features that give it a physical presence. Its like one of those modern family cars, just a lump of synthetic materials with loads of goodies on the inside, but entirely uninspiring on the outside. It looks minimalist for five minutes, but dull for the rest of it's lifespan. The really weird thing is just how unimpressed I am with its two main 'innovative' features - touch screens are not new, we've had them on supermarket self-service tills and photocopiers for a while now, and the motion / angle sensitivity? Well, once you've had a Wii it quickly becomes passe (MonkeyBall is available on the Wii - the iPhone version is probably ported from this).

It will be interesting to see what owners do when the contract runs out. Will they go for the iPhone 3.0? The fanboys will, and the business types will, but I'm not sure this item has long-term widespread appeal.

One more thing...

The camera is entirely a personal choice... but what's really good about the iPhone 3G is the hardware.

The first device wasn't 3G and had no aGPS - hardware. This one does. The bulk of the other "flaws" are actually merely omissions that software can "fix". MMS (although seriously - email is better), cut-n-paste, file storage, video recording etc... can all be added (and some have already been) by software.

And because it has iTunes - you do! And you manage your music and video content (the iPod mini and nano are the most popular iPods despite their smaller capacity due to the convenience - and when you're watching a movie on the train and the volume fades down and you take a call... trust me ... that's convenient) so you don't need to carry memory sticks around with you.

But it's the hardware that nails this release - it feels much more future-proofed with those key inclusions... and that's why we're seeing so many people buying it i think.

And, it always gets said on these iPhone threads, but I am going to say it again. If you want MMS or memory sticks - buy a phone with them on. But why come here and post how much you despise the iPhone? Knowing its benefits might sway somebody who is thinking of giving it a go, but having a comment like "Yes this really is the mother of all shit eating turds!" (as very funny as it is) is just gonna make think that people who hate this thing so much are sad losers who need to stop posting such miserable comments and go out get laid.

hype alright

I'm not happy with my new 3G. A) Touch responsive way too slow, no improvement over the 1st Generation. B) I still try to figure out making the numeric touch pad as default page each time when iPhone turn on instead two step processes. C) Claimed multi-tasking but in reality, there will be lag. I understood that the device is single core processor but expect it behave as duo because the impression from the hype gave me it is some sort of duo. D) I need a smarter yet higher mpix built-in camera with at least 2X optical zoom. Apple could apply the liquid lens technology on it. E) I need a louder speaker phone built-in.

@Swirly MMS

To whoever suggested using a SwirlyMMS on a Jailbroken iPhone - Clearly you've not actually received many pics this way. When they arrive they're fcking tiny. And there's no way to make them bigger. Which makes receiving MMS using this app completely useless.

To all the morons who keep saying "Why use MMS, when you can use email, it's free etc?" - you use it because you're contacting someone who has an MMS phone, but no access to email at that time. Is that so difficult to understand? How many people receive emails on their phone, outside of business users? Certainly not my dad, who wants pictures of his grandaughter regularly ...

first time iPhone user and happy

had a couple of non-Apple mobiles and they were all good, very good.

But on non-iPhone phones ... video (costs a bomb) online (ditto) address book (well one can have umpteen of these and try the frustrating chase were details in my webmail address book, application address book, phone address book?)

Tried the iPhone and hey! addresses sync (I'd rather have one robust address book than a trillion bitty ones. Oh, and I tried bluetooth other mobile phone address details to PDA and PC and, well, the address fields didn't match and periodically appointments were randomly offset by 1 hour. On the other hand address book/contacts are so easy-peasy with iPhone and mobileme,

To be fair some of the iPhone stuff is not too new but what is new and great is that they managed to make it wholesome and efficient.

Oh the joy

Having previously owned numerous nokias and sonys and one truly dreadful motorola all i can say is that so far this is easily the best phone I've ever owned. It works perfectly for me. I've never used MMS, so that's an argument that's irrelevant for me. Mobile Me worked straight away with no hitches. The surfing is superb although the lack of flash support annoys at times. Call quality is excellent and as expected the ipod is spot on. I have a proper camera and video camera so the iphone spec is fine too. I'd prefer a proper camera every time. It's very easily to nitpick specific features it lacks but if you don't need them who cares? As an overall package, in terms of usability, design and features there is no better phone. It's a joy to use. Happy boy here. One more point. If the iphone was so very crap why would there be this rush of copycat phones with touch screens. It's because Apple have innovated in terms of user interface. Again. I tried a Smasung touch phone and to be honest it was great, but then the iphone's interface makes it look clunky. Multitouch really is superb and the rendering near enough perfect. I'm sure Nokia et al will catch up and maybe make a better phone, but that's only because Apple have compelled them to. We should all be quite thankful that even if the iphone is not for you somebody will make a better phone that works for you. What's to complain about. Right I'm off to caress my iphone.

Addressbook syncing is the most important feature

"Finally proper address book syncing with my MBP"

I second that, wholeheartedly.

And not to forget proper calendar syncing, too.

Those two features alone are my all-else-overriding requirements and they were reason enough for me to get an iPhone. I don't care for the camera, I would happily pay 200 USD EXTRA for an iPhone (or any other phone) WITHOUT a camera as long as it can do simple and proper syncing of addresses and calendars.

In fact I absolutely hate cameras in phones. When I was sent to Saudi Arabia on a business trip, I was left without a phone because they confiscated my Nokia at the airport (because of the built-in cameras). Who needs a camera in a phone anyway. Kids and geeks, not any ordinary folks.

MMS? Oh yeah, I tried that once on my previous Nokia some 4 years ago. Never used it again since, never had anybody sent me an MMS either.

Video telephony? Oh yeah, I tried that once on the day I got my previous Nokia some 4 years ago, too. Never used it again since, never had anybody try to call me via video call either.

Browsing the web is a somewhat different matter. It can be very helpful when you're on the road and need to look up something quickly. Yet, on my Nokia the whole browsing experience was so cumbersome and frustrating that I eventually gave up on it. I was skeptical whether browsing on the iPhone would be significantly better, but I was very pleasantly surprised, Safari on the iPhone is really usable, conveniently so.

Anything else on the iPhone reminds me a little of the Newton 2000 I had about 10 years ago. The Newton was document centric though, while the iPhone is application centric. I still feel the document centric approach of the Newton was better, but the iPhone comes as close to being a proper Newton replacement (finally!) as it gets.

The absence of an SD card slot is the only thing where I would concede that this is a bit of a bummer. Maybe Apple can make a model without camera but with an SD card slot, I'd upgrade to that in a heartbeat.

However, the iPhone's software has the same serious flaw that my Symbian based Nokia had: It doesn't understand that +cc ac nnnnnn is the same phone number as 0 ac nnnnnn whilst in the country with the country code cc. There was a time (before Symbian) when Nokia phones were smart enough to match numbers properly regardless of how they were being presented by the network. How difficult could it be to do that? On the Nokia I had to enter everybody's phone numbers twice, once in the international format (to be used while roaming) and once in the national format. I have to do the same on the iPhone. How silly is that?! I hope Apple will fix that at some point.

I hope Apple reads this...

I am an avid apple fan and do end up buying all of their new stuff without thinking rationally. Although I am prepared to admit when they get something wrong and I don't squirm when someone criticises them (well unless it's pure ignorance).

All of the features that are missing from the iPhone that are present on a £10 pay as you go phone SHOULD be there. Even if Apple thinks they are obsolete. They (Apple) shouldn't give competitors ammunition over features that would take 5 minutes to program into the phone.

I don't think the memory card slot will be necessary when they have bigger hard drives (or flash drives), but I can understand why people would want one now, so why do apple not include one - not an expensive feature to have added.

The most important thing though is that Apple reads reviews such as this one as they praise it where praise is due, but are honest about short fallings. If Apple only listened to the majority of the reviews they would assume every product is perfect and there is no need to add anything.

However people say Apple is an arrogant company, and they would be spot on. But it is a good sort of arrogance. They have the right to be as there must be a reason why they have so many loyal fans, and why every product is treated like the birth of some new deity.

Two legs short of a donkey

Got the iPhone on day one - no thanks to DHL who couldn't be bothered leaving a card to say they'd called - and instantly discovered how flaky downloaded apps could be. Wasn't until I'd been hunting on the web for fixes that I discovered the firmware on the released units wasn't the final firmware - it was merely a late beta pushed out to allow Apple to stick to production deadlines. Once upgraded to the iTunes firmware it was far more stable.

The UK app store however is still chock full of US-centric apps that have no practical use whatsoever outside of N America and I suspect they're only there to bulk up the numbers. And taking pictures with the camera is like shooting motion shots through clear jelly: if you're not absolutely still the screen distorts badly.

All in all what could have been a killer unit has been executed in a half-assed fashion.

@ @ swirly mms.

If they have access to the phone they're recieving mms on, then by definition, they have access to email (show me an mms phone that doesn't do email). It takes 2 mins to setup on most phones, which resolves the sending problem; the network resolves the receving problem for you. Besides, what could possibly be so urgent that a pic of your drunken buddies can't wait till u get home.

'Issues'

Firstly the highest frequency you can set for mail pickup is 15 minutes, not five minutes as stated in the review.

I got an iPhone 3G and am replacing a HTC TyTn. Here are the 'issues'.

Firstly webkit based web browser is great, but no download or upload.

Bluetooth is an utter joke. The ONLY thing you can use it for is a headset. Bear in mind that OSX has a great built in sync utility called iSync that can be used to sync almost every manufacturer's handset via bluetooth - except it's own iPhone. Pitiful.

Can't use the phone as a modem to get online - and they are pitching this at business customers? This also means that if you have, say, a TomTom in the car and you subscribe to TomTom Plus services (such as real time traffic updates, speed cameras etc) then you can't use the iPhone as a modem for the GPS to dial the Internet for it's data (like you can with practically every other phone).

No copy and paste. *still*. That means no point making an office type suite for it like Pocket word and Excel on Windows Mobile. There is a 'notes' application but it's childish font and cheesy yellow lined notepaper interface is patronising. Why not give your visiting business people crayons to take notes in meetings while you are at it.

Can't use my own ringtones (without resorting to hacking or paying for hacker utilities). This is simply unfathomable. I'm not interested in buying songs for use as ringtones - I want to make my own sounds and use those - like I can with Windows Mobile.

No voice dialling. A pain in the UK with our mobile phone laws regarding driving.

Can't delete individual text messages - only ALL messages between you and another person. Stupid.

No filing system presented to the user - that means no storing files on there (it would be amazingly useful to be able to use it as a USB HDD (like every other iPod))

Also there appears to be a serious bug in 3rd party apps where you download apps and they work, but after a sync with iTunes they will all refuse to load up until you delete them all and reinstall again (including re-entering all lost settings). 'Extremely ****ing annoying' doesn't even begin to cover that.

Lots of potential but severely crippled. Kind of wishing I'd waited to get one another year when it's a bit more mature.

Different strokes for different folks

I loved the first edition, and the second one has 3G and AGPS. Nice screen, slick user interface, good browser. I would have leapt for it then, and would certainly go for this one too if only it could:

- Keep files on it. You know, transfer them off wi-fi network to take home, upload to server at work. Keep a few e-books and documents handy. That sort of thing. But no file system access (and why not? it would have been elementary to keep it seperate from itunes stuff). 8 or 16 gigs shared is plenty of space for documents and occasional multimedia files (in addition to itunes stuff). I don't need to share my mp3's, just be able to send and receive my user files. I have a 4gig nano3 that's plenty of music for me.

- Sync properly, a-la activesync or hotsync. Sync notes, todos, directories of files, last two weeks of e-mail (without Exchange). On Windows or on OSX. This is a dealbreaker for me. I want to sync notes from home pc and carry them around.

- Copy paste would be very nice, but not that crucial for me. It would break the user interface.

- Replaceable battery. Yes I do carry a spare with my HTC Touch when on extended durations away from a power source. It is thin and tiny, and a lot less hassle than a charger or a cable. Wifi can eat up a lot of juice.

I would have loved to buy one but I'll get the HTC Diamond instead. As I WM user I am grateful iphone is so slick, it drove the winmob folks to create a better interface.

Fatally flawed as a Blackberry replacement

The iPhone 3G is still seriously flawed as a business users device and although I swear by Apple devices I cannot recommend an iPhone as a Blackberry replacement with it's current software.

1. You can't search your emails. Anyone who relies on email in their job will find this frustrating beyond belief. For me this is an even bigger issue than issue number 2.

2. Still no cut and paste.

3. If you use exchange for your calendars and contacts the phone deletes all your private data and replaces it with the data on the exchange server. Any contacts and calendar events you add will be synced with the server, you cannot have private contacts and calendar events on the phone. Do you really want to give your employers all the details, events and contacts from your private life? Apple seriously need to add the ability to have local contacts and calendars which are not synced. Again I think this will send many users scurrying back to their Blackberrys.

However as a personal phone the device is currently without equal. Business users should stay away for now.

@ "I hope Apple reads this"

The issue with memory sticks isn't the capacity, it's connectivity and transporting the data elsewhere. If you use your cameraphone to take pictures, you're going to want to get those pictures elesewhere even if only to archive them on a CD-ROM or whatever. You're also going to want a way to get stuff (music, for example) onto the phone with a faster connection than the phone's USB port. THAT is what the removable memory is about.

I still think Apple have got the phone itself wrong. However, the loyal following that Apple has is sufficient for the product to gain a huge momentum. My nephew, for example, bought one purely because he wants to develop software for it - he couldn't care less about using the thing as a phone.

In a way, I wish the iPhone every bit of success. Why? Because it might well be THE phone to make 3G services popular in this country and drive down the price for everyone else. If/when Apple finally pull their finger out and produce a new iPhone that can do video calling, record video and basically do everything else that all its competitors can do, it should shape the market in a way that users of other products can benefit from.

Why the hate?

Why do people, including El Reg, have so much hatred for the iPhone? It's not perfect, it doesn't have some features that most other phones have, it does represent a new angle on the smart phone though and will push the other manufacturers to improve their product.

@@@ Swirly MMS

Are you serious Chad? You believe you can pick up any email address on any mobile phone which receives MMS? That's simply not true. My dad, for instance, is in his sixties, and has one email address, his work address. His email goes to his work email servers.

If I send him an email from my phone he then has to go in to his work, log on to his desktop pc, and pick up the email there. They have no vpn to work, and even if they had, i doubt I could talk him through configuring a vpn on his bargain basement phone which incidentally has no vpn capability. Ok dad, the phase 1 encryption algorythm should be 3des, and the hashing algorythm is SHA. They have no web based email gateway. How does he pick up that email on his phone, pray tell? Or I could MMS him the picture. Which is easier.

Are you so thick that you cannot conceive of any use of MMS? People use it, it's a reality. You don't, fine. Arguing that others should use email instead is pointless, and technically unfeasible. It is not unreasonable to expect a phone to have MMS, just as it's not unreasonable to expect a European phone to be 3G. Apple have dropped the ball in this respect, as it will be the third generation iPhone, if at all, which has both of these basic features.

In many other respects it's a wonderful phone. My wife has a 1st gen jailbroken one which i bought her. I think it's great. But it needs MMS.

@ "@ "I hope Apple reads this" "

"You're also going to want a way to get stuff (music, for example) onto the phone with a faster connection than the phone's USB port. THAT is what the removable memory is about"

And what's quicker than using the phone's USB port? - obviously copying it through a USB card reader first.. Yep that's it. Definitely faster (apart from all the extra steps),. must save all of 10 seconds over the phone doing it all by itself just by plugging it in. I wonder why Apple went to all of that trouble making it automatic.

" If/when Apple finally pull their finger out and produce a new iPhone that can do video calling, record video and basically do everything else that all its competitors can do, it should shape the market in a way that users of other products can benefit from."

Why should they pull their finger out just to follow the herd. They are selling enough phones as it is with just the features they deem worth including.

I don't know, but Apple may well have looked at a typical family like mine (all girls (aged 18 to 55) except for me), (all with phones that do MMS, video recording and video calls) and asked "Which of these features would ruin your life if we didn't include it?" Because the answer in this household would be none of them. The girls just don't use them. What they do do though is talk a lot! (and when they're not talking they are listening to their iPods - Mrs Headache included)

In all the time I've had a mobile capable of those things I have never made or received a video call (even though the stupid phone constantly wants to make video calls then says "Sorry Dave, I can't do that".) I have never had cause to send an MMS. The only MMS I have received have been spam. I've made 1 video recording and 1 sound recording - just to see what the quality was like. In my opinion it was rubbish at both so it has never been used in that mode again.

I've mentioned before that all we all have proper cameras, and the sum total of photos taken on the 16 or so mobiles that have passed through this household probably numbers less than 30.

And to those who complained about the lack of an FM radio - I notice fewer complaints about that now. It must be the realisation that you buy an iPod/iPhone and stuff it with the things YOU want to hear. I'm a great radio listener, R4 and R2 in equal measure. When I got my first Nokia with a built-in radio I was chuffed to bits - until I tried using it in central London. What a complete waste of time, I had to hold the headphone leads up away from my chest and had to constantly face north by north west or south by south east to get any semblance of a decent signal. After looking like a pratt for a few days the headphones were put back in the box and the built-in FM radio has been silent ever since.

Nice device shame about the operator

After queueing for two hours and spending another hour trying to get o2's systems to accept my address, I gave up trying to buy the iPhone.

Apparently if your address is incorrectly registered with the Royal Mail then you don't stand a hope in hells chance of passing the credit check. (This is despite my having been recently approved for a credit card to the same address, having a bank statement and a driving licence proving that address, and already having a mobile phone contract with another operator to that address.)

Even the Apple Store employees claimed they were amazed at how picky o2's systems were being (when they were working, which they weren't for much of the time I was trying to purchase the phone). There was a general sense of embarrassment on the part of the staff. Hilariously, for example, they were using Microsoft Windows (via VMWare) to access to the o2 registration system!

I bought an iPod Touch instead. Got it home - it asked me to pay an extra £5.99 for a software update, which I reluctantly did, and now it's dead as a dodo (after telling me there was an unknown error - helpful). I've since followed every instruction on the internet to no avail.

Bad day for Apple. I am going to take it back, get a refund, and consider my options. I've been a fan of Apple products but the shine is definitely wearing off.

Modem

If I could use this as a modem I'd definitely get one as I have to carry a laptop around with me everywhere I go when I'm on call as I manage servers.

However for now until I can see an easy way to hack it to work as a reliable modem I'll have to stick with my HTC Touch Plus on T-Mob W&W.

I think the Xperia will be my next phone purely because iPhone doesn't have modem capability, the touch was just a filler until something better came out as my Nokia N95 had crappy battery life and can't recharge via USB so was pretty useless.

I hate all this fanboy stuff, it really is pathetic - if something does what I need it to do then I'll get it.

hehe fools

There should be some kind of IQ test to review phones and even more to post here.

Some of the posts here are just shockingly ignorant.

The human race is doomed.

A gamechanging device slaps you in your ugly faces and you can't even see it.

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU DULLARDS ARE MISSING IS THE ITUNES APPLICATION STORE. THIS IS WHAT WILL SLINGSHOT THIS PHONE INTO THE STRATOSPHERE JUST LIKE ITUNES MUSIC DID FOR IPOD. WHAT PLANET ARE YOU BRAINDEAD MORONS FROM??????????

Remember what you posted here when you buy your iPhone 3 4 or 5 one day you dullards. You are wasting my oxygen.

So it's...

...still not as good as my Athena?

Which is two years old?

Thought so. I've had GPS integration with Google Maps, a search facility on my contacts (you have no idea how hard I laughed when I read that bit), and all that other nonsense for ages. On top of that, I can actually do some work with it, and I can even do really advanced things like copy and paste! Hehehe.

@Darren Coleman - Apple fans = not very bright

Totally agree mate, they are rather stupid and obviously have more money than sense but there you are, it takes all sorts.

I mean, what other phone would possibly sell without a user replaceable battery? in this regard alone, how does Apple expect it to take off as a business tool.

I'll admit to owning an iPod Nano 8GB for the following reasons:

1. Its size amd weight

2. Does exactly what it says on the case i.e. its an MP3 player that allows me to enjoy my music during my lunch break at work.

3. Fpr whatever reason it enjoys more widespread connectivity support in terms of stereo equipment/vehicle audio systems than competitors.

4. Have managed to track down a couple of tracks through Itunes that I have not been able to get hold of elsewhere or as cheaply (though the cost per track is rather high)

However I am not likely to rush out to buy a 16GB Nano should one come out tomorrow as the device does what I need and will continue to do so for a number of years and when the battery goes I'm not going to pay an arm and a leg to have them fit a new one as there will be better and cheaper devices on the market by that time.

Apple support is also dire (their own forums testify to this) but they excel at PR obviously and make the UK Labour Party look like amateurs.

The fact that they have changed metal for plastic proves they are miffed about their product being ignored by the thinking population and thus having to attempt to make their product more competitive (which they have failed to do as the software lacks a lot of features mainstream mobiles have had for years in order to maintain their margins by not spending on development)

Apple fans, Evil Jobs sees you all as walking credit cards/piles of cash.

makes me laugh

That most people banging on about it being expensive rubbish blah blah are the ones who are prepared to pay 20p to send a 320x240 image - haha, what are you, t-mobile fanbois? Before you need to prove your masculinity by telling of how you need mms to send the wife a reminder you DO still have a penis after all these years, I have a girlfriend too, wow! Except she must be that little bit more intelligent than your wife, AND all you friends as she can use email from her phone!! Wow!! And there was me thinkng this is only 2008.

Pfff MMS

All the cool kids are uploading their pics via the Facebook app anyway (or just emailing). Unlimited inclusive data vs MMS charges? I know which one I like the sound of better.

I'm still on the original iPhone but the apps available with firmware 2.0 have already transformed the device for me - I can't wait for O2 to sort their stock out so I can upgrade to the 3G version (16GB) and enjoy 3G connectivity and GPS on top. And despite their faults O2 are being good enough to allow us original iPhone users to upgrade early without penalty, even though we are only a few months into our original 18 month contracts, and I can then flog my original one to someone else.

Re: MMS is pathetic.

Nokia Internet Tablet

I bought an N800 before the iPhone came out. It has bluetooth and you can connect to the internet via any phone with modem capabilities (even the cheapest ones do) via 3G, EDGE, or whatever you care to subscribe to, or wait till you can use the built-in wifi.

It basically does all the things the iPhone does, and a few more besides, including video calling (via gizmo). It has 2 memory card slots, I can install whatever software I like on it (there are loads of apps) and nokia has given me the last 2 OS upgrades for free.

It's slightly more expensive to buy but since I don't have to tie myself down to a £35-£70 monthly contract it balances out in the end.

MMS

Quite obviously for the overwhelming majority of iPhone users, MMS is not an important feature to have. It is thus reasonable to expect those who would like to have MMS on the iPhone to wait until a third party MMS application will be available via the iPhone App Store. It probably won't take all that long before that happens anyway. Apple's development resources are better spent on something else (for example a cut and paste API).

MMS etc...

The only real shortcoming people have come up with of the actual phone itself is the lack of a front facing camera...

The lack of MMS, cut+paste etc are all software issues which can (and should) be fixed with a future update or third party apps.

That said, consider the iphone tariffs, unlimited (as usual, fair-use) data vs a limited number of sms messages, and each mms costs the equivalent of 4 sms messages... Why not just email instead? Mail is just so more flexible, costs nothing regardless of where you send it to... There were third party apps for mms too, not sure if there is one on the official app store but there has been an unofficial one for a while.

As for the front facing camera, i have had a nokia N95 for the last year which has a front facing camera and i assume it supports video calling, but i have never used it and i don't know anyone else who ever has. I'd say video calling is a bit of a gimmick that's rarely used, i wouldn't miss it.

Lack of video recording is a pain, but there were already third party apps to address that..

On the other hand, the web browser on the iphone is head and shoulders above what's available on any other phone, and i assume it will be somewhat faster on the 3g model.

And ofcourse, if you jailbreak it you can get a unix shell on the device, as a long term unix user that appeals to me greatly so i will be seriously considering a 3g iphone when the o2 store outside my workplace gets some stock.

Japan leads the way ...

Here in Japan, there is no GSM, none whatsoever, and consequently there has never been any SMS or MMS before 3G (W-CDMA) services came along.

Instead, each operator has their own portfolio of different messaging services, some text only, some text and smileys (up to several thousand smileys, specifically designed for teenage girls), some text and photos. Of each type there are several different services providing larger capacity per message. Every such service is incompatible with any other such service and similar services are incompatible between operators. It's a huge mess.

As a result of this incompatibility mess, mobile phone based email was adopted much earlier on Japanese mobile phones than it was in the world of GSM and CDMA One. Each mobile phone user in Japan gets an email address from their mobile phone operator and the mobiles are automatically notified when a message has been received for them, so it has a similar instant delivery as SMS has. Other than the teenage girls who can easily spend 100 USD per month on sending smiley messages between them (if they are on the same network), everybody else in Japan has long become used to mobile email as the sole text and photo messaging service they would use even if their handsets still support all that legacy mess.

Now, with the launch of the iPhone 3G through Softbank (formerly Vodafone Japan), users simply get an email address associated with their iPhone to send each other text or photos, nobody will miss MMS, which is anyway only available on Softbank and Docomo 3G handsets, not on the other two operators which use different systems. On the iPhone, SMS is available, but none of the Japanese legacy messaging services are available. Apple did away with all that nonsense in a cleansweap, just like they did with abandoning floppies. This is a good thing because the very likely outcome will be that in 2 years from now, not a single Japanese mobile phone will support any of those legacy messaging services. SMS (and perhaps MMS) will still be there, but all the rest will likely be gone. None of the handset manufacturers which make handsets for the Japanese market has so far had the guts to get rid of this crap, Apple did. Everybody else will soon follow. It's always happening this way over here.

As the thousands of smileys messaging services will no longer be available, new generation of teenage girls will grow up with some other fad and the ones who are using this now will grow out of their teens and no longer miss the ability to send smiley messages. It's a fashion thing, like miniskirts, it will eventually fade away. MMS is just the same kind of thing. Get over it.

Besides, the iPhone is probably unique in that it has this App Store which makes it likely that MMS and other such outdated things may be supplied via some third party application. Why should Apple or Softbank waste their time to write such an app if somebody else can do it. MMS is obviously not on their list of priorities. They probably have done their homework to know what services are most important to their customers. And if they made a mistake estimating the importance of this or that missing feature, a third party app is likely to emerge, which is probably what they bank on. And if all else fails, no third party apps emerge and customers in significant numbers ask for it, then they can always invest some resources then and deliver the feature later on.

In any event, consolidation of the fragmented and cluttered messaging services into one unified standard (=> mobile email with instant notification) is something that makes sense and it is going to happen, just a matter of sooner or later. Apple are simply driving this change so it will happen sooner instead of later.

Sure, in Europe where there are only two different messaging services and all operators use those two and users can send messages between operators, the situation is not as ridiculous as it is/was here in Japan with so many different and incompatible messaging services that nobody really knows how many there are and what the differences are between them. But still, consolidation into a single service based on email makes sense nevertheless. Sure, some people will complain during a transitional period, but in a year or two, it will most likely be all but forgotten and those who scream about MMS now won't remember what all the fuzz was about.

@ Chad H.

Seriously, you think that was a flame!? I was simply politely answering the question "Who uses MMS?" with "I do, as it's cheaper than SMS when abroad on my network". I also have 'unlimited' 'free' data, but good luck using it abroad without fierce charges.

MMS

When MMS was first introduced, people said to me that the only thing it would be used for was gay men sending each other pics of their privates. As it happens I find that my family use it much more for sending pics of their various offspring to each other to participate in the 'my baby's nicer than yours' competition.

Paris because she'd definitely want to send MMS's of her latest shopping purchase...

geez, it's only software, give 'em a break

Third party app or Apple supplied, an MMS app is probably not too far out, it just wasn't top priority to make it into the launch features / apps. So what?!

Have you guys never worked on a project where certain deliverables had to be postponed for later so as to not jeopardise the delivery date of the entire project?

Besides, there are many folks who have to wait to get an iPhone because they ran out of stock. Is it really such a big deal if you have to wait a little for a software upgrade to get some feature that wasn't on the top priorities list?!

@ MMS, FFS

I think your post sums something up - you're boasting about the fact that O2 send Iphone users a link to any MMS picture they've received, which of course you can look at with your uber-advanced browser and connectivity etc - and yet you're seemingly oblivious to the fact that this isn't some kind of special Iphone feature, but a standard, ancient Network means of dealing with deficient, older, non-MMS capable handsets. I remember when I had my old T68i with a 256-colour screen back in 2002, even though that phone *did* have MMS built in, due to a SIM problem the network would still send me those links, and I could load them up in the T68i's crappy WAP browser quite happily. How advanced are you Iphone owners feeling now?

MMS is imperfect, and nobody uses it everyday, but it's still the only way to send an instant picture message to any mobile phone, and a basic expectation of any mobile phone in 2008, or 2002 for that matter. Email is not a replacement for MMS in any form whatsoever, it fulfills a different function altogether.

That the Iphone doesn't fully support MMS natively is laughable, though not as laughable as the fact we're all still having to point this out a year after the first phone was released (and its fans then said "it's only software, it's coming soon...")

Incidentally, to the poster defending Apple over the problems incorporating copy and paste into the Iphone's interface, um - maybe that's something they could have considered when designing the interface in the first place? Like it or not, it's something that many users consider essential to any user interface, and which the supposedly "complicated" competing OS's do with admirable simplicity and ease.

must be..

a technically inept family, who still haven't realised EVERYONE thinks they have the best baby, but they're all infact , , all just babies,

man, everyone brings their babies into work, everyone else either thinks 'christ just piss off' or 'great, an excuse to stand around doing nothing for half an hour' neither have any real interest in the infant in question,

babies

MMS, a convenient excuse for operators to keep data roaming charges high

After regulating roaming charges on voice services, the EU is now investigating roaming charges for data services. And the operators' excuse? They claim that there is nothing wrong with their roaming charges on data services because it is for business users only, that they already offer a cheap alternative for consumers: MMS.

In other words, they use MMS as a lousy excuse to keep roaming charges on email and other data services as outrageously high as they are. The sooner MMS is culled the sooner they will have no excuse left and the sooner roaming charges on email (and other data services) will also be brought down.

If you use MMS, you give those greedy operators an excuse to keep data roaming charges high. If you refuse to use MMS altogether, you deny those greedy operators this excuse. If they cannot show high usage statistics for MMS in their defense, the EU will have an easier case. If you want email while roaming to become affordable any time soon, boycott MMS, both at home and especially overseas.

For fecks sake...

I love it....

I hate it....

iPhone users are morons....

iPhone users are fanboys....

It's a phone for God's sake. Some people like it, some people hate it. So what? With all that is going on in the world at the moment, you would think that there were more important things to get het up about rather than what phone someone chooses to own, and whether you like it or not.

Objectivism

To be perfectly honest while many of you are posing an objective argument, I suspect quite a few among you are simply using objective facts to back up an opinion based on kneejerk reaction or whatever side of the apple fence you happen to be on.

Personally with apple's mac range I see only one reason to buy any of their stuff - there is a (debatable) style to them. If I had money to burn then yes I would fork out almost two grand to get a hold of a laptop with a 17 inch screen. That said however, would I really want to tar myself with the same dirty brush as every pseudo intellectual tard sitting in Starbucks somewhere right now, declaring to the world that they are a writer? Probably not.

I do however have an iPhone, because I like to be able to do email and web on the move properly. I also hated my blackberry because its media player sucked. I shun windows mobile because I like to be able to use my phone on the move and I don't want to have to stand still and poke at my phone with a stick.

No tribal approach here, just personal choice on the per device level, that's how it should be.

Paris because some macbook users are equally as vacuous as the "dog in my handbag" crowd.

So do people want a perfect phone

I have a iPhone 1gen and I like it. I don't get why people become so pro apple or anti apple. It's not a religion. I like my phone but phones such as the nokia n95 have a few more features. No phone will be perfect I suspect the flame war is about apple not iPhone.

I Love The iPhone

Simple solution, if you don't like the iPhone, then just don't buy it, don't whine and whinge on here complaining that it cannot sent MMS or it has a 2mb camera and that it cannot video record! The iPhone is not aimed at the teenage/chav market, and for those who cant film their happy slapping and upload it directly to youtube! I have the 1st gen iPhone - brought from my mate who has a 3G iPhone and i have to say it is the best phone i have ever possessed - it saves me from carrying my iPod and a separate phone - where invariably i miss most of my calls! When apple have made the amount of phones that Nokia et al have made - then maybe people will have the right to complain - until then get over it!

Shock horror! iPhone owners dont believe MMS is relevant

MMS not relevant to iPhone owners - news at 11. If you've already bought an iPhone, or just happen to be a rabid Apple fanboy (see Ty's posts), then chances are MMS isn't relevant to you. This is no great surprise really - why would anyone who is a fan or owner of a device be sympathetic to features that they don't even have?

MMS isn't usually a make-or-break decision for people, but it is something which is industry standard and has been for years. Arguing about the cost of sending them, the quality of the image/video or whatever is a diversionary argument. The fact is - MMS is an instant delivery, guaranteed service which is supported by every phone I've ever seen since 2002. Email is not a guaranteed service, nor is it typically instant, and it relies upon the recipient actually proactively reading their email on their phone. There have been countless examples that people have made in these comments about where MMS *is* relevant in their lives, you can't just dismiss them out of hand because it doesn't fit with your/Apple "vision".

MMS *just works*, which - bizarrely enough - is why it is an industry standard. As I said previously - if you're going to argue against MMS by posting a whole host of contrived arguments about cost, relevance in the modern world, etc then you might as well make the exact same arguments for doing away with SMS as well and just use email for everything. I mean if some random friend can read their email and see your picture messages that way, why bother sending archaic 160-character limit txts to them either?

The big issue I have with MMS being absent on the iPhone is not so much my desire for it personally but the fact that it is something that could so easily be implemented in software. There is no excuse whatsoever for MMS not to be supported officially by Apple already on iPhones. The attitude towards MMS, copy and paste (don't tell me a company the size of Apple with the experience it has in the industry can't design or tweak a UI to support something so simple), etc is at best arrogant and at worst insulting.

It's true that people can (and should) vote with their wallet, no one is being forced to buy an iPhone. This is a review however, and an review would be remiss if it didn't point out the shortcomings in the thing it was reviewing. That's what having an objective opinion is all about - not just swallowing whatever Apple Inc put in front of you as the gospel truth without question, reason or logic.